The penultimate, key stage of the 26th Vuelta a Murcia/Trofeo Alfonso Gúzman, from Caravaca de la Cruz to the top of Alto de Collado Bermejo over 148.6 km., lived up to expectations, and turned out to be a spectacular one, courtesy of the all-out battle which broke out between all top overall contenders and/or some guys who, even if their chances to win the GC were close to zero, were going for a day of glory and/or wanted to get a moral boost before more significant (for them) races. These were the reasons guys like today's winner Carlos García Quesada (Unibet.com) as well as Damiano Cunego (Lampre) and Santos González (3 Molinos Resort) stole the show. The Italian was certainly extra-motivated also by the fact that this hilly stage finished atop the "Cima Pantani", dedicated to the legendary climber who won here (one of his not many victories outside the Grand Tour scene) a few years ago. Damiano - and his coach Martinelli, who also used to be Pantani's former team manager - missed the target by a mere three seconds only.

Another young talent (slightly) failing to achieve his objective was local idol Alejandro Valverde, who couldn't help his teammate José Iván Gutiérrez Palacios hold onto the GC leadership the man had captured just 24 hours earlier. In yesterday's article (see link at the bottom of the page) we quoted Gutiérrez as he was talking of the hard time he had on the Collado slopes three years ago. And ... oops, he did it again! The poor Spanish had another (comparatively) bad day on the same climb, and this time he paid an even higher price, as he had to yield the yellow jersey to compatriot (but not teammate) Santos, while it was the Tour of Andalusia recent champion García Quesada that continued his winning ways and took line honors. The man from Granada covered the route in a time of 3 hours, 49 minutes and 47 seconds, with the Italian in second place, Santos coming in 38" behind - along with an excellent Triki Beltrán - and Gutiérrez (now three seconds down on the GC) at 56".

Such a stage couldn't help but getting off to a hectic beginning, with the first attack coming no more than half a dozen kilometres into the journey: the all-Spanish sextet of Egoi Martínez (Discovery Channel), Rubén Pérez (Euskaltel), José Luis Martínez (Andalucía-Paul Versan), Aitor Galdos (Panaria), Isidro Cerrato (3 Molinos) and José María Almagro (Relax-Gam) made the gap on the slopes of the first ascent, Alto de San Juan, and successively achieved a maximum advantage of more than five minutes, which turned the Basque racing for the U.S. team into the virtual overall leader on the road (Egoi was 03'48" to Gutiérrez at the stage kickoff).

They were going to be brought back anyway: first it was Galdós, later it was the turn of Cerrato; and as the going got tougher, also Rubén Pérez, Egoi Martinez, José Luis Martinez and José María Almagro had to give up their ambitions on the first slopes of the Cat. 1 Alto de Espuña (the second last difficulty on today's menu). Discovery's Egoi - even first across the top of both the San Juan and Pliego Altos - showed a great combative attitude and even greater legs, and was the last one to wave white flag. Kudos to the young Basque!

The going got tough … and Carlos García Quesada got going: he attacked soon after Egoi was chased down, and immediately made the gap, leading Ezquiel Mosquera (C. Valenciana) by half a minute at the top of the climb. And the frontrunner, not really a GC threat today, managed to stay up front on the way to the final ascent to the line. Which is where the battle between Santos González (and his team 3 Molinos), José Iván Gutiérrez, Comunidad Valenciana's David Bernabeu and few more guys (good mountain goats like Manolo Beltrán and Emanuele Sella as well as the Czech Jan Hruska and Holland's Eltink included) broke out too. In the meantime, also Cunego broke away, with the clear intention to win the stage and dedicate his victory to Marco Pantani.

He would get what he was looking for, if it wasn't for García Quesada and those three seconds. The same three seconds that took Santos González all the way to the top of the GC, regardless of all the efforts from Gutiérrez's "domestiques" Valverde and Fran Pérez. But you can be sure that, after such efforts, neither the "toppled king" nor his Caisse d'Epargne-Iles Balears team mates are willing to surrender, and that they are going to do everything they can in order to keep Santos from giving his new team Tres Molinos their first ever victory in the pro cycling ranks. Even if the parcours of tomorrow's final stage (Mucia-Murcia, 138.7 km., with the Cat. 3 Alto de Cabeza de la Plata coming after 99 km.) makes it one for the sprinters, and definitely favours the current yellow jersey holder.